By Julia Roberts
Volunteers at Nassau County Animal Care and Control are bringing serious concerns regarding conditions in the NCAS shelter: Dogs in unsecured kennels. Dead kittens in cages with live ones. No air conditioning or ventilation. Animals lying in metal cages with no padding. Animals not being medically evaluated. Pet food that has passed its expiration date.
These are some of the issues volunteers say are facing animals at the Nassau County Animal Shelter on SR 200 in Yulee. The shelter is funded and managed by NCAS, a department of Nassau County government.
Volunteers say they are terminated if they speak out. Nassau County government says that, while they cannot address specific concerns, volunteers are not terminated for speaking out, but that the county cannot respond or work with volunteers who talk about the shelter on social media. Officials say any volunteers who have concerns should contact county staff directly.
One of those volunteers was Lexus Ujobai, who volunteered for a year, on weekends and during the week. Ujobai called the conditions at the shelter “horrific.”
“I have walked in several times when there would be six kittens in a cage, and they would be covered in feces and urine because someone forgot to put a litter box in there,” Ujobai told the Nassau NewsLine. She said she once found a dead kitten in a cage with other live ones. The county says that is an unfounded accusation.
“The concern about the kitten, staff, frankly, was not accurate,” Brandy Carvalho, director of Strategic Advancement for Nassau County, told the Nassau NewsLine. “There was a story … that was not the case. No one can validate that. Anyone who expressed that, I offered the opportunity to give me more details; no one provided that to me.”
However, Ujobai said reaching out to shelter staff does not get results.
“When I found the cats were suffering from a Upper Respiratory Infection … I have watched several kittens die, and I can’t stomach this anymore,” she said. “I reached out to the director (Tim Maguire) and I said, ‘I emailed GE and got a HEPA filter donated, and I would like to use this.’” She said Maguire has not responded to her emails. “There’s people out here wanting to help, why are you not responding?” Ujobai wants to know.
Maguire’s salary, $116,027.13, is part of the shelter’s $1.1 million salary budgeted for the 2025 fiscal year. Maguire’s benefits include the use of a county truck, which Carvalho says is necessary as he is on call at all times, and a situation can come up during off hours that requires animal control. Other animal services salary budgets include “on call,” $20,147, and overtime, $54,000.
Another volunteer that decided to speak publicly about the conditions and management at the shelter is Kylie Champa. She and her mother, Peggy, both volunteer at the shelter and say Maguire is not involved with the animals or volunteers.
“For being the director, supposed to be the face of the shelter, he is completely nonexistent,” Champa said. “He shows a complete lack of care for these animals. He rarely goes to events. He has a lack of appreciation for volunteers. I think you could count on one hand the amount of events he has been to. I saw him at a mega-event, and he was sitting down eating pizza, not doing anything.”
Adoption events are an avenue to get shelter animals in the eye of the public, so promoting them is key to finding homes for pets. However, one volunteer, Dave Fausheauer, was working to promote the animals in the shelter, but said he was terminated as a volunteer. He said he created a newsletter and an Amazon wishlist that brought in thousands of dollars in donations of money and supplies, but the visits to the shelter’s Facebook page and number of subscribers, and thus donations, has gone down since he was terminated.
“It is very important for staff to handle social media and to be in charge of social media,” Carvalho said. “That includes Facebook, Instagram, newsletters, everything. That was a change I made. I offer volunteers, if you want to (write draft posts or other outreach), it has to go through us and come from us. We have public record requirements.”
Ujobai was terminated from volunteering at NCAS while she was talking to Nassau NewsLine for this story. In an email chain to Carvalho, she expressed concerns about URI in the cattery. Carvalho replied that she had looked into the matter and that, “Based on my visit today, no kittens in the main area have URI and two dogs have kennel cough. Thanks to the effective veterinary care provided by the staff, which started when the animals got sick.”
“As usual, we investigate any accusations, and frankly, the ones that have been made in these emails that we have looked at so far seem to be unfounded or don’t tell the full story,” Carvalho told Ujobai in an email. She offered to have Ujobai meet with NCAS’s newly hired outreach specialist, but Ujobai declined, saying, “At this point, I don’t see any value in meeting tomorrow. It would be counterproductive, as it’s clear we are not seeing eye to eye.”
Asked whether volunteers are terminated for speaking publicly about shelter operations, Carvalho said, “That is not the case.”
In the email informing Ujobai of her termination, Carvalho said, “The consensus is that your behavior while at the shelter has created enough disruption that it hinders the staff’s ability to conduct their duties. Additionally, contacting staff on their personal social media pages about NCAS business without their prior consent is inappropriate, and violates their privacy. My offer to meet was to discuss this in person. Your unwillingness to meet with leadership to address these concerns has made it impossible to resolve the matter constructively. As a result, we regret to inform you that NCAS is terminating your volunteer agreement, effective immediately.”
Both volunteers and county staff agree that the building that currently houses the shelter is an issue. It is a 35-year-old building, Carvalho said, that was not built to house animals until they are adopted. To that end, the county has approved a new shelter. That project is in the beginning stages; a contract to perform design services has recently been awarded. While the entire project, design and construction, has not yet been funded, the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners has put the building it its five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), $9,618,229 in the 2025-26 fiscal year, $1,835,192 in 2026-27 and $1,926,952 in 2027-28 for a total of $13,380,373 approved in the CIP. However, the new shelter will take years to come to fruition.
In the meantime, the county hopes bringing the outreach specialist onboard will improve communication with staff and volunteers.
“I agree, and have in the past, volunteer engagement could improve,” Carvalho told Ujobai in an email. “But that’s why the BOCC approved having the outreach specialist position, and we are grateful that (he) has come on board to help us. He is very passionate about connecting with the volunteers and leveraging their passion and strengths to help animals.”
Volunteers, and former volunteers, say they stay to help animals.
“I have talked to a lot of them (volunteers) to recruit them and ask them to talk and a lot of them … they are afraid,” Kylie Champa said. “They say they don’t want to be terminated as a volunteer because then we feel like we won’t be able to help the dogs.”
“I’d rather be fired and not work there and have actual people that care than what’s happening now,” Peggy Champa added.
jroberts@nassaunewsline.net
